


With Each Other

by ThreeHats



Category: Animals - Fandom
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-23
Updated: 2016-03-23
Packaged: 2018-05-28 15:14:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6334003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThreeHats/pseuds/ThreeHats
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Harley and Mozzarella find themselves alone and separated from their family in a desolate tundra.  They find comfort in each other until help arrives.  All characters, locations and scenarios were pulled out of a hat to create this story, which was written in 30 minutes or less.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With Each Other

All characters, locations and scenarios were pulled out of a hat to create this story, which was written in 30 minutes or less.

 **Characters:** Mozzarella  & Harley the cats  
**Location:** The Tundra  
**Scenario:** Awkward slow dance

 

“Mozzarella, wait.”

Mozzarella slowed, her white paws sinking into the snow. A few hours ago she would have detested such a thing, but now… Well, now a little more snow in her toes seemed like the least of her worries. She glanced back at Harley, her blue eyes bright with worry. 

“We don’t have time to stop, Harley. We’ve got to be close, I just know we are.”

Harley dragged himself out of a nearby thicket, cursing under his breath as he tried to shake some ice out of his fur. “Just give it up. They’re gone.” He pulled himself up onto a long dead log and sprawled out in defeat. “We are officially and irrevocably lost.”

“No we’re not!” Mozzarella insisted, damp tail swishing a bit in irritation. “I’m sure our humans are just up ahead!”

“You’ve been saying that for hours,” Harley grumbled, gazing listlessly up at the darkening sky. “If we were gonna find them, we would have done it by now.”

Mozzarella bristled, preparing to retaliate, but then just let out a dejected sigh. As much as she hated to admit it… Harley was probably right. She still wasn’t entirely sure what had happened. Their humans had decided to take them on a ride through the tundra – some kind of convention thing. Mozzarella had been so excited – they never got to go to those! Finally, her humans were taking her along. Harley, Meatball, and Tilly all got to come too, making the journey a little noisier than she would have liked – Tilly asked a lot of the same questions over and over again – but as long as she was with her humans, she was happy. But then the storm had hit…

“We don’t even know if they made it out after the crash,” Harley gumbled.

“Don’t say that!” Mozzarella snapped. She huffed, turning away. “I thought for sure we’d all regroup after getting away from the car… It was so loud when the wind hit, it scared me…”

“Hn,” Harley grunted, though Mozzarella knew he’d been scared too, the way he’d bolted right after her. Once they’d regained their wits about them, they’d braved the icy winds to find their way back, but… either they’d gotten turned around, or the car had moved.

“They’ve gotta be out there somewhere…” Mozzarella sighed, scanning the darkening horizon with fading hope. “They can’t just be…”

“Mozza…” Harley hesitated, watching the female cat carefully. Her new haircut had been sullied by the snow and ice, but still she looked ready to take on anything. He envied her for that. He really just wanted to sleep… He sighed. “We should find shelter. It’s getting colder.”

Mozza paused, but finally gave a small nod. “Okay. Yeah. Let’s go.”

They began off again, neither of them saying anything as they kept a sharp eye out for their humans, or for danger. It was slow going, finding shelter – there seemed to be nothing but dead plants and icy snow for miles. But, at last, they found a small cave, just big enough for the two of them.

“Well, this is a HUGE step down,” Harley grumbled, sitting on his haunches and licking his right paw a bit. “To think I took that old cat tree for granted…” He started as something brushed up against him only to see that it was Mozzarella, a low purr eliciting from her chest. “Uh, Mozza…? You okay?”

Mozza glanced up at him, eyes pleading. “Harley… Will you… dance with me?”

Harley’s ears went flat. Dance? At a time like this? What the heck was she talking about? 

“Um… Mozza, look, maybe you should lie down…”

Mozzarella pulled herself back and sat, staring at him very intently. “Please, Harley? I saw on the big glowing box in the living room once… sometimes when humans are feeling sad, they’ll dance together, and it makes them happy again.”

Harley had to keep himself from scoffing at that ridiculous statement; he didn’t want to hurt Mozzarella’s feelings, but damn, that was one of her stupider ideas. But… it wasn’t like they had anything else to do, and she was feeling so lost without the humans… 

“…Fine, okay,” Harley grumbled, looking away awkwardly. “You’ll have to, uh, teach me, though…”

Mozzarella giggled, nuzzling under Harley’s chin and urging him to stand on his hind legs. “I think it’s like this,” she purred, putting her paws on his shoulders as they both stood tall, awkwardly trying to emulate the humans she’d seen on the glowy box. Harley put his paws on her chest, half pushing her away, but didn’t resist much more than that. 

Hopefully this would be enough to placate Mozzarella for the time being so they could get some sleep. They’d start fresh on their search for the humans in the morning… The fact that he thought it was pointless at this point was something he decided to keep to himself for now.

“Okay, now move your back paws like this,” Mozzarella instructed, pushing Harley a bit backwards so he was forced to move one of his hind paws to catch himself. She giggled. 

“That’s right!” They continued dance-falling around the cave for a few minutes, Mozzarella giggling about how silly they must look, and about how the humans had such strange customs. In spite of himself, Harley eventually found himself laughing too, he and Mozzarella finally falling into a heap on the floor once they could no longer maintain their balance with one another.

“See?” Mozzarella purred between giggles. “It did make us feel better! The glowy box humans were right!”

“Yeah, I guess they were,” Harley chuckled back. He repositioned himself so he was snuggled up next to Mozzarella, wrapping his tail around her protectively. “Stay close tonight, okay? We don’t wanna freeze…”

“I’m fluffier than you, I’d probably be okay,” Mozzarella joked tiredly. Harley batted her lightly on the head. “You’d be totally helpless without me, missy, and you know it.”

Mozza stuck her tongue out, but snuggled in closer regardless. “Whatever, Mr. Grumpy Cat.”

“I hate when you call me that.”

“I know.”

Sleep came easier than the two had expected it to that night, each of them keeping the other warm despite the icy air that nipped into their cave. Harley was awoken by Mozzarella stirring in the morning light, her ears swiveling toward the cave’s entrance and a silent question in her eyes. He was about to ask her what she was listening for, but then he heard it too.

They ran faster than they ever had before into their humans’ arms, purring with all their might and hoping to never be put down again.


End file.
